So many people have asked me how married life is so far. And my response has been that it’s great – nothing has changed. Or rather, it hadn’t, until last week.
Last Tuesday was the first day that our new house cleaners came. And all the sudden, married life is looking like a huge improvement over non-married life!
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Summer berry season is ON.
These glorious juicy little berries are the #1 (food-related) reason I look forward to summer. Have I said that before… perhaps about tomatoes? peaches? basil? Blasphemy. Berries are my all-time favorite summer food.
And just because it’s fun, here are my top non-food-related reasons to look forward to summer: Dresses (my credit card bill has been insane lately, and Anthro and Banana are to blame), Martha’s Vineyard (headed there in a month!), and just generally the warm weather. If you ask me, there’s no better feeling than walking out of the house without taking the time to stop and bundle up first. I think those that live in a warm climate year-round take that feeling for granted, but I most certainly do not! Well, not usually. I’ll be complaining about the heat before you know it… so just remind me that I always prefer warmth to cold!
I also love how easily those summer dresses pack into a suitcase. Today I’m headed back to Boston to do girly wedding planning stuff with my mom, and I threw all my clothes for the long weekend into a carry-on with plenty of room to spare. If you know me, you know that is quite the feat! Girlfriend does not pack light. I mean, I haven’t gotten to the toiletries yet – and I’m pretty sure those don’t get skimpier in the summer – but I think I’m going to get by with my smallest carry-on. Summer dresses FTW!
So since I mentioned it, can I just derail this pudding parade to talk about wedding stuff for a second? OK good. Because this weekend we get to do the following: Cake tasting. Florist meeting. Hair and makeup trials. Eeek!! Maybe we’ll even have to test out a few signature cocktail recipes. Life is tough, you guys. I cannot wait!
P.S. Am I really flying across the country just to get my hair done? Shhhh. Let’s get this pudding parade back on track.
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You know you’ve entered yuppie status when you can’t resist the Whole Foods one-day sale on champagne mangoes, and end up coming home with an entire crate.
This happened last Friday, when I ran into Whole Foods for a “few things” (always) on my way home from work, and left with $9 of mangoes. Such a sucker.
But $9 for 14 mangoes! I was both delighted with the deal and in disbelief that I was buying a crate of something just because it was on sale. Also, have I really entered the phase of my life where I stock up on whole crates of expensive produce? I might be, like, 10 years too young for that. So many emotions brought on by these mangoes. Plus, how do you use up 14 mangoes?
Luckily, I found the solution to that last one.
Step 1: make mango sticky rice.
Step 2: devour mango sticky rice.
Step 3: repeat.
I think that should just about cover it.
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Hiya!
Are you surprised that I want to talk about curry today?
Prooobably not. Curry seems to be all that’s on my mind lately – in popcorn, in peanut sauce, and now in soup. What can I say? I <3 curry. And I especially <3 coconutty curry as a spicy base for a veg-filled soup.
This soup is a mix between authentic (lemongrass, Thai basil, Thai chilies) and inauthentic (quinoa and kale). I hope you guys are OK with that – I know I am. Mostly, I wanted to use red curry as a base for a soup, but then I quickly realized that I wanted to add quinoa and kale to it. Quinoa and kale happen to be my two favorite soup additions. They add such great texture, and I love that they hold up no matter how many times you reheat the soup. (You know the same isn’t always true if you’ve used, say, noodles and broccoli before.) So curry, quinoa and kale it is! A rockstar combo, if I do say so myself.
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One of my favorite parts of blogging is that I get to connect with so many lovely people every day. Lovely, like-mind, food-loving people like you! The food blogging community really is the best. It was a quite unexpected bonus for me when I started blogging – I had no idea how much I’d love that part of it.
One of my great food-blogging friends is Julia at The Roasted Root. Have you checked out her beautiful blog? Julia always has something clever to say, and something delicious to feed you. Something delicious and sneakily healthy, I might add. She’s pretty much the best.
So I was thrilled when Julia asked me to be one of a series of guest posts on her blog. And today is the day! I’m posting over on The Roasted Root, hijacking Julia’s space to talk about Indian food.
It’s been a while since I made you any curry or the like, so I’m pretty excited about this one. Chicken tikka masala has always been my favorite Indian dish, and I have fond memories of ordering it for takeout along with a big side of fluffy naan. And when I recently decided to make masala with cauliflower and coconut milk instead of the ol’ chicken and cream… whoa. Worlds collided. This Cauliflower Coconut Masala was born.
Head over to The Roasted Root to check out the recipe!
